[TheForge] 1045 uses

Thu Feb 20 00:11:00 2003

My two very puny cents on scrounging steel. George you are absolutely right in one respect, it is potentially dangerous to make tools from steel that has a questionable past. It can be the cause of maiming. So don't do it!

However, since most of what we do as smiths is not make our own tools, then this argument of no scrounging breaks down when you get past making tools. 

I've scrounged steel for decades; from barnyards, dumpsters, junk yards, antique auctions, creeks .... basically anywhere it was to be found. Every piece is a find, and eventually gets used. It may be years, but it gets used.

In our post modern culture we have adopted a "if it ain't new, it must be trash mentality." Fact is, the smith of only 100 years ago would scoff at George's anti-scrounging pronouncement, and they certainly took their craft seriously. Iron or steel was not always easy to come by, and everything got recycled. Have you ever looked closely at the contents of the Mastermyr Find? If you have ever prodded through the remains of an old blacksmith shop abandoned for more than 75 years, one will find piles of scrap steel and iron -- waiting to be recycled.

I make no apologies for recycling steel, I'm just sorry I can't get more dimensional steel to use. Let's face it, much of what we do is not to be scrutinized for its newness or tested for its Rockwell hardness, its tensil strength or its temper. 

But to declare that no smith who values his time will go scrounging steel, speaks more to the speaker's values as a product of the 20th Century, than mine as a dumpster diver. I believe a smith of 1850 would be aghast at what today's smiths toss out. Sure, we don't live in 1850, but the frugality of those old craftsman is to be emulated, not scorned.

But what do I know.....

Reynolds Cushman 

 --- On Wed 02/19,  < [email protected] > wrote:
From:  [mailto: [email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 22:27:28 -0600
Subject: Re: [TheForge] 1045 uses

I would agree for the professional smith, but for the hobbiest smith ( 
by far the majority in headcount if not output)  scrounging has more to 
do with cherished mental defect than economics.   I was picking up odd 
scraps of steel from the side of the road  and diving dumpsters long 
before I started smithing.  Smithing gave me the skills to actually put 
the mounting pile of junk to use.   This defect is shared by more than 
the smith's -- why otherwise would people inspecting your wares 
gravitate more to  a knife formed from a railroad spike or old horseshoe 
than a comparably finished one out of a new higher carbon steel blank.   
This sort of recycling is a graphic and gratifying testament to the 
inheritly plastic and transmutable nature of metal, at odds with what 
the eyes and hands are telling you.  To many, a spike knife is no longer 
an inanimate object, but a living one, moving from one state to another. 
 Frozen in time, it gives you the sense that if you look away for a 
moment, it will complete the transition.   I believe this is the same 
reason customer's so often want the rough drive hook they watched you 
forge, rather than the nicer finished one on the table.  The one on the 
table is no different to them than the bubble wrapped inanimate objects 
they face everyday.  The one in your tongs is alive and mutable, they 
know because they saw it, and that image of it will keep in their minds 
eye. 

I started this out talkin about a smithing desease, sorry to wax 
philosophic.  Regarding the old spring steel, generally I anneal it a 
couple of  times before forging to normalize it.  I haven't had a 
problem yet, but I am not using it for power hammer dies where failure 
could more easily result in dangerous shrapnel.

Charles

George Dixon wrote:

> New tool steel is normalized for sawing, delivered by UPS and is 
> cheaper than the time wasted prowling the trash for supplies, heating 
> the scrap up to normalize it, then sawing it to size....time has way 
> more value than can be saved using junk.
> Lastly, used springs can have stress fractures from use and  abuse, 
> which may become apparent only after the
> die made from them is hardened...when it can crack from previous 
> stresses.
> If you are serious about your trade and understand the value of your 
> time, stick to new materials which are alloyed with their end use in 
> mind.
>
> George Dixon
> metalsmith

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